Top 5 Australian Government Grants For Small Business
Starting a business is one of the most challenging things one can do, not just in Australia, but everywhere in the world. According to a report by Small Business NWS, more than 97% of businesses in Australia are small businesses with less than 20 employees.
Sadly due to competition, and lack of resources, 20% of these small businesses fail in the first year, 30 percent in their second year, and 70% within their 10th year.
Luckily, the Australian government is one of the few governments in the world, that recognizes that great ideas require a helping hand, so each year, it allocates more than $20 billion as grants to small businesses and start-ups.
However, these grants are often a tough nut to crack. So, here we have compiled five grants that may be worth your time if you have a small business.
1. The Entrepreneur’s Program
The Entrepreneur’s program is aimed at helping Australian small business innovate and grow, so if you have a pioneering idea in the early stages of your business, then this program could help your venture get off the ground.
The grants funds up to 50% of eligible projects of up to $1 million under the accelerating commercial grant, 50% of the cost per eligible project with minimum grant of AUD 2,500 up to $20,000 (excluding GST) under the Business Grant Growth and up to AUD 50,000 for research capabilities for collaborative ventures.
2. CSIRO Kick-Start
Out of the 1200 grants available in Australia, CSIRO Kick-Start is one of the few that provides funding to very small SMEs. The grant is aimed to help small businesses to develop research.
A matched funding of up to $50,000 is available under this program, and it supports project involving:
- Placement of research to develop and implement new ideas that have commercial potential
- Public-funded research organisation engagement that will be involved in undertaking the research activity
- Access to the research
- Access to other forms of research capabilities
The program is only available for small businesses covered by the government-industry initiative. To apply for this grant, you must be an ACN company, registered for GST, and should at least $1.5 million of annual turnover.
3. R & D tax incentive
Research and development incentive program offers a marketing driven assistance for all industries particularly providing a tax offset.
The program provides businesses with less complicated support. Unfortunately, not many companies consider R&D because of the difficulties in finding external finance and because new knowledge tends to ‘spill overs’ to benefit competitors.
Basically, the incentives provide 43.5% refund tax credit to companies with a turnover of not less than $20 million and a 38.5% to others.
4. Business growth grant
One of the most common fears for small business entrepreneurs is that their business may eventually stagnate due to resources burnout and rising competition.
With the Business Growth Grant, you can easily push the past stagnation and be able to take your business to the next level. This grant offers financial help to small businesses that wish to improve their operations.
You will be given an opportunity to engage external expertise that can help your business to implement improvements by identifying knowledge gaps that can impress your company’s growth.
The implementation improvement can be done through supply chain facilitation, overall business evaluation, and growth service as well as tourism partnership.
Business Growth can reimburse your business for more than half the cost of implementing these improvement aspects to a maximum of AUD 20,000.
5. Export Market Development Grant
Small businesses can also qualify for the EMDG scheme provided by the government for small businesses that intend to expand their operation in foreign countries.
The program helps you to cover the overall cost of running your business and the activities that can help your company to be export ready.
What is interesting about this scheme is that it can reimburse up to 50% of the eligible export promotion as well as marketing materials above $5,000.
This means that your company can claim marketing consultant costs and trade show overseas. The grant can be used to protect your registration against infringement by businesses located overseas.
Typically, to be eligible for this program, your company must have at least:
- An income of not more than $50 million during the grant year
- $15,000 of export expenses
- A principle status for operating an export business expect for non-profit focused industry bodies.
Final Word
These five are not the only government grants available; over 1200 grants are available in Australia. However, these five may be worth your time; they will have the biggest impact on your business, and your company is likely to meet the eligibility criteria.
Don’t apply every grant opportunity that you come across; creating application can take a lot of time and effort. More importantly hone your business strategic planning prior to applying for any grant, then find a grant that is available to fund your strategic objective.
